Subsidised rural broadband tender issued

CommsDay writes that Canada has issued a call-for-applications for the ‘Broadband Canada: Connecting Rural Canadians’ initiative which was launched by the government at the end of July. Successful applicants will receive federal support for broadband network rollouts valued at up to 50% of their one-time costs, including the purchase, adaptation or upgrade of equipment and software; long-term investments in network capacity, such as the lease of satellite transponder capacity; network deployment costs; and other costs directly related to extending high speed infrastructure. The deadline for applications is 23 October and winners will be announced in late 2009 or early 2010, with network deployment to start as soon as possible.